Due to the relative infancy of blockchain, innovators are still defining how law firms can use blockchain technology. It’s an important consideration in discussing blockchain for lawyers - it has not operated at full-scale (yet).
As we start a new decade, this article looks ahead to the changes and challenges of the New Year.
Most exposures to crime result from failures of technical barriers, but more common issues arise from attorney and staff reactions to incoming emails.
By Adriana Linares
Most of us enjoy our social media accounts as a way to keep an eye on family, friends, hobbies, and passions. For many of us, they are also an important business asset.
Loosening up, if not entirely removing “office shackles,” interests many lawyers — and never has it been easier thanks to many modern technology tools, apps and services. Here, we recap our presentation during the Second Annual SDCBA Law + Tech Summit.
By Lilys McCoy
I recently started using a fountain pen. Why, you may ask? Two reasons: First, I felt I needed to do a digital detox and returning to longhand seemed like a good way to start. Second, my writing hand, previously hardened by years of cursive script on legal pads, spiral notebooks and paper calendars, had become weak, and fountain pens are apparently easier on the muscles (that bit of wisdom was spot on, in case you wondered). I was almost surprised to see that the descendant of the quill is still being sold and supported, but it is . . . and in many different forms and by many different manufacturers.
As I contemplated my digital detox, I also considered the hard reality that I could never really, truly unplug. Absent a decision to live completely off the grid, I must accept some connectivity in my life. And, as an attorney, I must not only accept the networked life, I must embrace it. Our ethical duties require us to do so. Notably, the American Bar Association amended ABA Model Rule 1.1 in 2012 to include technological competence: “To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice including the benefits and risks associated with technology . . .” See, 2012 Amendment to ABA Model Rule 1.1 Competence, Comment 6, Maintaining Competence as referenced in SDCBA Legal Ethics Opinion 2012-1.
The San Diego County Bar Association, long a leader in the legal ethics space, decided in 2017 to lead in the legal technology space as well. In 2018 we hired one of the first Bar Association Member Technology Officers in the nation — the incomparable Adriana Linares — and launched expert law+tech education. This edition of San Diego Lawyer is dedicated, in part, to helping members become more technologically savvy. But technical competence must not be at the expense of other competencies. And, while indispensable and unavoidable, technology should be in service of what we do as lawyers, not the essence of what we do.
By Adriana Linares
It’s TechTuesday! Today we are sharing the 3rd of our new series titled “Tech Tip in a Tenth”. These are short, targeted, and practical video’s approximately 6 minutes in length, because, as Technology Committee Member, David Majchrzak said, “Who can’t spare a point one!?” First, a list of more more resources on the topic followed by today’s Tech Tip in a Tenth!
By Adriana Linares
It’s TechTuesday! Today we are sharing the second of our new series titled “Tech Tip in a Tenth”. These are short, targeted, and practical video’s approximately 6 minutes in length, because, as Technology Committee Member, David Majchrzak said, “Who can’t spare a point one!?” First, a list of more more resources on the topic followed by today’s Tech Tip in a Tenth!
By Adriana Linares
It’s TechTuesday! Today we are sharing the first of our new series titled “Tech Tip in a Tenth”. These are short, targeted, and practical video’s approximately 6 minutes in length, because, as Technology Committee Member, David Majchrzak said, “Who can’t spare a point one!?” First, a list of more more resources on the topic followed by today’s Tech Tip in a Tenth!
Shoulder surfing: it’s a thing. How do I know? Because I’m a pro. A hard-core perp. My mental breaks are taken by peeping over your shoulder to watch your movie, read your texts and emails, or review your client’s confidential legal documents with you — hey, I’m here to help! Well, truth is, I’m just looking around but people make it so easy. No one uses privacy screens (well, at least one of us does) and just about everyone over 40 has HUGE FONTS (thanks, presbyopia). This makes the act of shoulder surfing easier than ever.
Until recent years, this act of privacy invasion was employed primarily for stealing calling card numbers and pins at public phones or ATMs and the like. Today, the illicit practice has evolved into a social engineering technique used to obtain all sorts of personal, private and confidential information. It’s an attack that can be performed with no technical skills, no technology in hand and at close range in an intimate or a public place. In fact, the more crowded, the better! As a very mobile professional, I am regularly on airplanes, buses and trains; I work from
coffee shops, bars and hotel lobbies. I sit in crowded seminars, packed airplanes and wait in long lines with everyone else and their devices. I’m no longer amazed at how oblivious people are to the information they so readily display.
And while it would be nice to have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” when we expose our screens to nosy passers-by in public places, we don’t. But we all know the reality of having a mobile practice and living in a modern world — we move, we work. So what can you do to help enforce your duty to protect your clients’ information?
Aside from opting to work only from the confines of your home or office, an excellent and simple first line of defense against this type of data breach is a privacy screen. A privacy screen helps prevent those side-eyers from getting a side view. Similar to the way vertical blinds work, they use “black out” technology that darkens or discolors the screen from any side views, making the screen hard or impossible to read at an angle. To the person next to you, your device will look like it’s turned off or mirrored but to you, the screen is not distorted or otherwise impaired.
Side Benefits
